Revelation: The Ruler of Kings on Earth
Bethel Baptist Church
Scripture Reading: Revelation 1:1-8 From the first line in the book of Revelation, John exalts Christ. Then, in the first chapter, he describes Christ in majestic terms. Christ is the "faithful witness" … the "firstborn from the dead" … the "ruler of the kings on earth" (Rev 1:5). Christ loves us and has freed us from our sins and made us a kingdom of priests. This prompts John's heart and pen to surge into a doxology … "to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen" (Rev 1:5). The words "I am the Alpha and the Omega" in Revelation 1:8 are words from...
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Revelation: To Him be Glory and Dominion
Bethel Baptist Church
Scripture Reading: Revelation 1:1-8 This marvelous book, with which the New Testament (and the Bible) ends, is what its name implies. It is the revealing, uncovering, displaying of the person of Jesus Christ, in all His glory. Though some of the details in Revelation, presented in the form of symbolism, are not always well-defined, the overall message of the book is clear. This book is the prophecy of the end of human history. The end of the age culminates with the second coming of Christ, the final judgment of all things, and the eternal state of all creation. John...
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2 Samuel: David's Final Song
Bethel Baptist Church
Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 23:1-7 What people say while they are dying is very significant. They don’t talk about the weather or the stock market or the game on television. They talk about eternal matters. David, “the sweet psalmist of Israel,” wrote a song just before he died. The book of Psalms contains 73 Psalms bearing David’s name, but this song is found only in the book of 2 Samuel. The content of this song is highly instructive for us. This poem does not contain the ruminations of an old king as he looks back on bygone days of glory and the...
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2 Samuel: Pride in Numbers
Bethel Baptist Church
Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 24 - (1 Chronicles 21) We know David for his great victories and songs . . . and for his great sins. One rather obscure passage about one of David’s sins is 2 Samuel 24 (repeated in 1 Chr 21). David wanted to number his army, but not for the usual reason, which was to fight a war. It seems that David simply wanted to see how many men he had for personal delight (2 Sam 24:3). What he did, displeased the Lord (1 Chr 21:7) and God severely judged the people of Israel (2 Sam 25:15-17). One lesson we can draw from this story is that it...
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2 Samuel: A Rock And A Lamp
Bethel Baptist Church
Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 22 (Psalm 18) Someone once said, “There are two main things we need to learn . . . how to live and how to die.” Having conquered the fear of death, in Christ, sometimes it is life which defeats us . . . namely the multiplied sorrows, sicknesses, emotional turmoil, losses, anxieties we all experience. David knew the strains of life intimately. In his song in 2 Samuel 22:5,6 he describes his trouble in the following way . . . “waves of death ... torrents of destruction … cords of Sheol … snares of death." David’s experience was filled...
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1 Chronicles: The Glory of the Temple
Bethel Baptist Church
Scripture Reading: 1 Chronicles 29:10-20 Near the end of his reign, King David desired to build a temple for the Lord. For 400 years, since the exodus from Egypt, the central place of worship in Israel had been the tabernacle. The tabernacle was a tent which the Jews carried through the wilderness. Now David wanted to build a permanent structure as the main place of worship for Israel. His desire was denied by God. David could make the plans, but could not be the builder of the temple because his reign had been characterized by the bloodshed of war (1 Chr 28:2-6). ...
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2 Samuel: Sin's Bitter End
Bethel Baptist Church
Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 18 When David gave way to his lust for Bathsheba and his pride to cover his act through murder, there were some things he had not considered, namely the long term consequences of sin. Sinning against the living God is a more serious matter than we usually think it is and the dark effects of sin are both sure and destructive. David’s sin had terrible effects that he had not considered in the passions of his heart. First, his sin had an effect on God’s name. “. . . by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the LORD to...
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Psalm 3: Salvation Belongs to the Lord
Bethel Baptist Church
Scripture Reading: Psalm 3 (2 Samuel 13-16) Sometimes we can read the stories behind our hymns, like the loss of Horatio Spafford’s four daughters before he wrote “It Is Well With My Soul.” The stories enrich our understanding of these songs. One of the things that makes Psalm 3 interesting is the superscription before verse 1, which tells us the background behind the Psalm. It reads “A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom, his son.” The story is found in 2 Samuel 13-16 and it is the heartbreaking account of rape, revenge, and an extremely strained...
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2 Samuel: God Defends His Name
Bethel Baptist Church
Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 12:26-31 With the daily reports of warfare in almost every corner of the world, we may not expect or desire to come to the Bible and read about wars. But the stories of Old Testament Israel are filled with accounts of the fierce fighting between the Israelites and their enemies. This is especially true of the reign of King David, who was described as a “man of war” (1 Chron 28:3). 2 Samuel 12:26-31 describes the battles between Israel and the Ammonites. It was the Ammonites that Israel was fighting when David committed his sin of adultery...
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Romans 3: Not Even One
Bethel Baptist Church
Scripture Reading: Romans 3:9-20 This paragraph in Romans forms the climax of the argument of the first major section of the book. The thrust of the first section of Romans is that the entire human race stands guilty before a holy God. The pagan man is guilty (Rom 1:18-32); the moral man is guilty (Rom 2:1-16); the Jewish man is guilty (Rom 2:17-29). What we have in Romans 3:10-20 is a string of Old Testament quotations which, in unambiguous statements, concludes that every human being stands guilty before God’s awesome judgment. "None is righteous, no, not one; . . ....
info_outlineScripture Reading: 1 Samuel 21:1-9
As David ran for his life from Saul’s murderous anger, living in the hills of Judah, he naturally became hungry. By the time David came to Ahimelech, the high priest, he had a few men accompanying him. When David inquired if Ahimelech had any provisions, the answer was that the only bread available at that moment was the sacred bread displayed in the Holy Place in the Tabernacle.
This bread, sometimes called the ‘Showbread’ or the ‘Bread of the Presence,’ was arranged in two rows (perhaps in two stacks) of six loaves on a golden table in the Holy Place (Exod 25:23-30). The twelve loaves represented God’s provision to the twelve tribes of Israel. The bread was changed every Sabbath Day and was only to be eaten by the priests (Lev 24:5-9).
Under the circumstances (i.e., David’s hunger), the priest gave David the bread to eat, along with his men. Jesus used this example in the New Testament when He was teaching the Pharisees about true righteousness (Mt 12:1-7). True holiness is not a matter of anything external, like ceremonial washing or abstaining from certain foods or animal sacrifice.
True holiness is a matter of the heart. "I desire compassion, not a sacrifice" (Mt 12:7). The implications of this principle are far-reaching, particularly for our worship. Worship is not simply a matter of performing the right rituals … baptism, singing, giving, communion. Worship is a matter of the heart in a burning in desire for God. It is a heart of reverence and love for God that makes songs or prayers or eating the bread of the Lord’s Supper acceptable to Him. The essence of holiness is a pure heart that longs for the living God in repentance, delight, and submission.